I won the roll off and decided to let Mercer go first. He deployed both of loota mobs in the buildings on the long edge of his deployment zone. The rest of his mobs were deployed inside the battlewagons right on the edge of his table quarter with the stompa set up behind them. The deffcopters were deployed with the battle wagons ready to move out as soon as they could.

Now for my deployment. Two devastator combat squads were deployed in the shrine ruin. Two tactical combat squads were deployed in front of this with one in the ruins and one in the crater (thanks for the advice on that one me being me, I had put them in the open *facepalm*). A further two devastator combat squads were deployed in the ruins to the right of the of the shrine, along with a tactical combat squad, with a further combat squad deployed just to the left of this ruin. The scout squad split into combat squads and deployed in the ruin at the far right corner of the board (one combat squad on the top floor and the second on the floor below). The rest of my army is being kept in reserve to arrive by deep strike.

Ok so here is where it all starts to go wrong. By placing all of my most mobile troops in reserve I am not able to deal with a very mobile horde of orks. Not to mention all of my tank busting meltas are in these reserve squads. I've got to hope that my lascannons can pop at least one transport each turn in order to slow this massed ork assault, not to mention that big nasty stompa.

Scout move

The deffcopters make a scout move towards the large central building.

Turn 1

"We'z gonna squish us some red hummies!"

Turn 1 begins with Mercer moving his deffcopters towards the devastators and tactical marines in the smaller ruin.One of the battle wagons moves towards the scouts ready to jump out and attack should the weapons on the battlewagon and the loota's fail to kill them. The rest of the ork roll out in there battlewagons using the central building to shield them from view. The stompa moves up behind them ready to unleash hell from it's massive cannons. The ork shooting phase was a bit of a mixed bag which is to be expected from our green friends. The deffcopters fired on the marines on the ground floor of the small ruin, but only managed to kill a single marine. The stompa however fired it's gatling cannon at the tactical marines in the crater killing one then it switched fire to the lascannon devastators on top of the shrine killing a single man it then switched fire back to the tactical marines killing another, before finally running out of ammo. It then fired it's main cannon at the tacticals killing another 2 marines, causing the sergeant to decide discretion is the better part of valour and flee back towards the shrine. The loota's in the left hand ruin fired at the tactical marines in the ruin in front of the shrine killing 3 and causing the others to flee. The loota's in the right hand ruin took aim at the scouts but after everything they could muster didn't kill a single scout. The assault phase sees the deffcopters assault the devastators and sanguinary priest on the ground floor killing all of the remaining marines in that combat squad and the priest.

The only blood angel to move is the lone Sgt who moves into the ruins in front of the shrine the rest of the men remain stationary and prepare to fire on the oncoming green tide. My only drop pod arrives and delivers a melta toting tactical squad within spitting distance of the lone ork battlewagon. The shooting kicks off with the newly arrived tac squad popping the battlewagon. with this done the scouts and plasma cannon wielding devastator marines open up on the boyz climbing out of the wreckage reducing their numbers to 11 boyz and a nob. The rest of the army fires on the battlewagons but because of the meks kustom force field no damage is done.

Things aren't going to plan at all the stompa is making a mess of my troops with it's massive cannons but this isn't the biggest problem I've got, with all of my mobile troops in reserve I'm basically stuck holding the line hoping I can hold until my assault marine arrive. My main priority is to try and stop those transports from getting too close but with that KFF I really have my work cut out. Not to mention the fact that the only weapons I have on the board that are up to the job are my lascannons which will be able to fire at a single transport a turn and the melta tactical marines that are stuck out in the open with no real support and too much ground to cover to be any help.

Note to self DON'T DEEP STRIKE I need the mobile units from turn one, and never, never, never never waste points on drop pod for tactical marines.

The ork battlewagons move towards the devastator squad in the small ruin and the nob mob jumps out it's transport and moves ready to assault the tactical combat squad, a mob of boyz jumps out of another and moves to assault the devastators inside the ruin. The third battlewagon moves up in support but the boyz on board stay put for the moment. The stompa moves to engage the tactical marines and the drop pod. The boyz mob on that side of the board move to engage the scouts in the ruins. Shooting sees the tactical combat squad in the small ruins wiped out by the loota's in the left hand building. The loota's fire on the newly arrived tactical squad this combined with fire from the stompa wipes out all but two of these marines who stand their ground ready to face the incoming stompa. The assault phase sees the tactical combat squad near the small ruin wiped out by the warboss and his nobs, while the boyz manage to kill off the remaining devastators in the ruin. The ork boyz assault and kill the scouts on the 1st floor of the ruins on the right hand side.

My plasma toting honour guard and librarian come in from reserve and land right in front of the warboss and nobs ready to unleash plasma death. The rest of reserves fail to arrive, even with the ability to re-roll for deep strike. Nothing moves again. I managed to blow one of the battlewagons with the lascannon devastators. The fire from the plasma HG manages to cause some wounds but non of the nobs fall and I manage to lose one of my own men to get's hot results. The tactical squad missile launcher regroups and fires on the nobs battlewagon managing to wreck it with a lucky shot to it's side armour. Three nobs are killed by a combination of bolter and missile fire from the devastators on the first floor of the shrine. The meltagun and multi-melta from the drop pod tactical squad fire on the stompa but fail to do any damage thanks to the meks KFF. With everything left having fired there are no assaults this turn.

Bad reserve results have left me with nothing to play with. Worst of all is the fact that I didn't use the librarian to cast Blood Lance, this would have helped to remove another of those nobs before they could turn around to engage my marines. I have given Mercer all of the mobility for the last 2 turns which has allowed him to pick and choose his targets without too much fear.

Turn 3

"Boss da red un's is propa squishy!"

Mercer moves his nobs mob ready to engage the librarian and honour guard the boyz in the small ruin move towards the shrine ready to assault the devastators next turn. The remaining battlewagon moves around to the front of the small ruin to give supporting fire to the coming assaults. The loota's fire on the lone sergeant in front of the shrine destroying him.The last battlewagon fires on the missile launcher marine killing him. The other loota mobs fire on the scouts but yet again the fail to kill any. The stompa fires on the tactical marines in front of it killing them both. The assault phase sees the scouts wiped out and the librarian and honour guard destroyed.

My reserve rolls see the rest of my units arriving. The captain and flamer honour guard land behind the final battlewagon and the two assault squads arrive in the top right hand corner of the board behind the stompa. No movement again this turn. Shooting sees the assault squads fire all of their melta weapons at the stompa but again they either miss or the KFF protects the monstrous machine. The lascannons fire on the battlewagon only managing to destroy it's weapons mount. The captain and HG all fire at the battlewagon as well but fail to do any damage.

So I have all my units now but non of them are in a position to be effective. The assault squads are looking at the back end of a titan, the captain and HG are alone and surrounded by blood hungry ork mobs, and the devastators are about to be over run by yet more orks.

The turn starts with Mercer turning his stompa to face the assault squads. The nobs and warboss move into cover ready to assault the captain and honour guard next turn, the final battlewagon moves out of around the side of the small ruin and the boyz inside jump out to assault the newly arrived captain and HG. The other mob of boyz on this side of the board moves into the shrine ready to assault the marines on the first floor. Shooting sees the left hand loota mob firing at the lascannon devastator squad but again they fail to kill any of the marines. The loota's and stompa fire on the assault squads killing all but 6. The stompa then moves into assault and kills all but the assault sergeant who manages to take out 2 structure points. The boyz in the shrine move up and kill all of the marines on the first floor. The boyz who have just got out of their transport assault the HG and captain, they are reduced to 8 boyz and the nob in return for killing all of the honour guard and wounding the captain.

My turn starts straight at the shooting as I have no units left to move. The lascannon devastators fire on the remaining battlewagon but fail to do any damage. The assault phase sees the assault sergeant re-engage the stompa but he is killed without causing any damage. The captain manages to kill another 2 orks but remain locked in combat.

Do I really have to point out how FUBAR this whole turn has been.

Turn 5

"Mork, I love da smell of burnin' hummies in da mornin'!"

This turn kicks off with Mercer moving his warboss and nobs up ready to assault the captain and the stompa moving to get a better line of sight on the devastators. The shooting sees the last of the devastators destroyed by the loota's. The warboss and nobs assault the captain and kill him leaving no blood angels alive on the board.

Yet again FUBAR!

In conclusion the plan was for the drop pod to come in and allow me to better position the deep striking units, EPIC FAIL! All I managed to do was split my force up so that Mercer could pick his targets without having to worry about any counter attack. Not only this but it meant that my hardest hitting units had to spend a whole turn sat in the open with their thumbs up their asses, while the orks got to pump rounds at them.

Blood Angels get a massive amount of mobile troops which I managed to waste by deep striking them instead of deploying them normally and moving up the board. Two turn would have got me into a better position to attack if I moved normally than waiting for them to come in from reserve.

My advice to all blood angels players is DON'T DEEP STRIKE! And fear the loota with mobs as large as Mercer's your looking at between 20 and 40 shot each time they fire.

Before I get the cries of "it was the stompa what did it" most of the damage was done in assault by normal boyz, those pesky nobs, and my own stupidity.